Glastonbury 50 cover art

Glastonbury 50

The Official Story of Glastonbury Festival

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Glastonbury 50

By: Emily Eavis, Michael Eavis
Narrated by: Gemma Whelan, Jamael Westman, Lauren Laverne, Louise Brealey, Oliver Ford Davies
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A BOOK OF THE YEAR PICK IN THE TIMES: 'Captivating'
A ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR: 'In-depth and inspiring'
'Beautifully compiled ... the perfect festival experience' SUNDAY TIMES

Glastonbury 50 is the authorised, behind-the-scenes, inside story of the music festival that has become a true global phenomenon.

The story begins in 1970. The day after Jimi Hendrix's death... dairy farmer Michael Eavis invites revellers to his field in Somerset to attend a 'Pop, Folk & Blues' festival. Tickets are £1 each, enticing more than a thousand customers with the promise of music, dance, poetry, theatre, lights and spontaneous entertainment - as well as free milk from his own Worthy Farm cows.

Fast forward through five tumultuous decades and the Eavis's vision now encompasses a gigantic 'city in the fields', with a total annual population nearing a quarter of a million. Tickets sell out within minutes, the show is beamed live to more than 40 countries around the globe, and over 3 million people are registered to attend. Meanwhile, the bill has expanded to include big name performers, artists and designers from every branch of the creative arts. Glastonbury Festival is now the largest outdoor green fields event in the world.

In their own words, Michael and Emily Eavis reveal the stories behind the headlines, and celebrate 50 years of history in the Vale of Avalon. They're joined by a host of big-name contributors from the world of music - among them Adele, JAY-Z, Dolly Parton, Chris Martin, Noel Gallagher, Lars Ulrich and Guy Garvey. They're joined by artists - Stanley Donwood, Kurt Jackson and many more. Writers - Caitlin Moran, Lauren Laverne, Billy Bragg - and by a host of photographers, from Seventies icon Brian Walker to rock and roll legends Jill Furmanovsky and Greg Williams.

Together they bring you the magic that makes Glastonbury, Glastonbury.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Emily Eavis and Michael Eavis (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group Entertainment & Celebrities Entertainment & Performing Arts History & Criticism Music Celebrity

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Ready Steady Go cover art
Verse, Chorus, Monster! cover art
Good Pop, Bad Pop cover art
How to Be a Rock Star cover art
From the Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge Podcast (Series 1) cover art
Buzzin' cover art
And Away... cover art
Tenement Kid cover art
Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minister - The Complete Audio Collection cover art
It's So Easy cover art
A Likely Lad cover art
Bruised, Never Broken cover art
I Don't Take Requests cover art
The Good Drinker cover art
James Acaster's Guide to Quitting Social Media cover art
Oh Yes, Oh Yes! cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
The story is read by many different people, not only Michael and Emily Eavis. What an event. Most interesting to learn how the event has changed, adapted and stayed relevant. Much credit due to the Eavis hand on the rudder. 50 Years! What an achievement. Pity about the very sudden ending.

Very interesting - loved segments from many artist

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Anyone who has been to Glastonbury will fall in love with this book. You listen and your right back there. If you haven’t been to the festival, reading this will make you want to go and fall in love before you’ve even been. Fingers crossed for 2021!

What a book!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm 43 now and whenever I hear or read a piece of avalon, I often feel the sweat, wet and euphoric music that goes with it. This over-hyped but under-apreciated masterpiece called Glastonbury. If you haven't been then I can't pretend it hasn't seen better days. But then I was there. I am grateful to it for becoming the person I am. I was never successful but I did enjoy my youth and 13 festivals and 25 years later, I've fell in and out of love with this festival just as those who have produced the event. it really does paint the picture of the genuine struggles for authenticity in such a corporate,corrupt and wholely divisive world. Still this festival shines through the memoirs of its artistic creators show what it is to mean community. the task of audible to create an Eavis or two is pretty well done. the book and pictures are a coffee table read but more so its a timepiece. for an insight into just how it became what it is, how it transformed into from thatchers cronyism, rural v city dwellers and the insipid interests of traveller and Police authority in equal measure. There is a human cost to everything and no man stands in the same river twice. Nor woman neither. if you think you know about music and were unfortunate to only arrive here post-social media hype then read/listen. it's a time long long gone but this encapsulates how we will forever remember the 90s and 00s as the Lost Vagueness years. But Glastonbury will carry on. I'm sure one day we will be able to visit Radioheads mud bath at the Pyramid without even leaving our front room. But for now this will sit nicely next to my plastic bag of 1997 mud I still have today. Thank you Michael, Emily, Lauren, Jo,John, Jools, Jane and Jamie for the presentations I still love today on vhs. The Pyramid will be on my tombstone and my ashes will be on the stone circle one day.

Years and Years of Love

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
it was a good listen.
I enjoyed hearing how much planning goes into the whole thing

fascinating look from the inside

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An interesting listen, with some fabulous narrators. A little bit frustrating hearing some aspects twice of the history but appreciate it was views from different people.
A good bulk of information looking at the issues of putting on the music festival, and some lovely anecdotes especially about Coldplay and how they got to be headliners.
A good document of its progression through the year and I’m sure there is a book to be read / written about the live events themselves. Although touched on it really centres on the main stage headliners but it would be good to hear about the smaller stages and the lesser known bands too.
All in all, a good listen and if you like live music then it’ll be of interest.

Happy Glasto Birthday!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I only recently came anywhere near the festival (which had been sold out even before the pandemic and the waiting list was probably as long as the number of actual attendees) and was interested in hearing more about the festival. The closest I got to it, geographically, was visiting Frome hoping to get a ticket to Paul McCartney's secret gig at the Cheese & Grain. I found the book to be fascinating and inspiring. The festival still has the "hippie vibe" that is long gone in our current society, I love the willingness to take risks and have an open mind, and the defiance to succumb to the sponsorship/corporate pressure. The only disappointment was the lack of memories/stories about Paul McCartney's participation. He has now (2022) played there twice and he can - or should - be considered the #1 rockstar of ALL the mentioned artists in this book for his impact on rock'n'roll history and much else, yet he's only mentioned by name in passing. No memories, no anecdotes, no nothing. So many others have been given the chance to share their memories in this book and I found them all to be interesting, even if I don't listen to their music, but to cut him out so entirely seems very strange to me. Unless, of course, that was his own specific wish.
If it wasn't for that, I'd give this book 5 stars.

Interesting, informative and inspiring

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As a frequent Glastonbury frequenter, I was surprised how well this book transitioned to audiobook. I enjoyed the individual stories - especially regarding the set up of the festival and also the accounts of how the festival expanded. Lauren Laverne is a great compère but I wish we could have been treated to actual accounts from each of the contributors. The actors do a fine job but having personal accounts from Mchael and Emily Eavis would had added a little gravitas to the story. Also hearing first hand from the performers would have been great. Still, a good listen.

Surprised how this book translated

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazing! Great in sight into how the festival began, great recollections from the headliners to the staff that give us this fantastic event..

Loved every second

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I suspect the print book makes a bit more linear sense. The audiobook is a little odd and it’s a real shame that Michael and Emily weren’t recorded for it.

Lauren Laverne is great though. The other narrators try to cover all the other contributors which gets a bit confusing at times.

The 50 year story of Glastonbury is extraordinary and that alone makes this worth experiencing.

Slightly odd as an audiobook but Glastonbury is amazing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.